Robbie’s Inspiration – W3 Prompt #64: Wea’ve Written Weekly: Power #poetry

David from The Skeptic’s Kaddish has offered the following as his W3 Prompt which you can join in here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2023/07/19/w3-prompt-64-weave-written-weekly/

Write a poem of any style and any length on the topic of “Power.”It can be anything related to power in any way, whether it’s physical, emotional, or even electrical.

This particular topic as applied in the corporate world, is particularly close to my heart. I have written a few poems for this challenge.

Set up to fail

Erosion

Of competencies

Through unwise

Promotion

Based on meaningless factors

Leads to frustration

Peter Principle

Poor judgement

When promoting staff

Undermines

All involved

Creating incompetence

Peter principle

I recently came across the Peter Principle which Wikipedia describes as follows: “The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”: employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.”

The above two poems are based on this principle.

Quiet Quitting

Cry for help

Or real withdrawal

Power play

Or despair

When leadership disappoints

Some quit silently

I also recently came across the term “Quiet/Silent Quitter”.

Investopedia says the following about Quite Quitting:

The term “quiet quitting” refers to employees who put no more effort into their jobs than absolutely necessary.A 2022 Gallup survey suggested that at least half of the U.S. workforce consists of quiet quitters.However, skeptics question those numbers and whether quiet quitting is a new trend or simply a trendy new name for worker dissatisfaction.

You can read more about this trend here: https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-quiet-quitting-6743910

Collateral Damage

Who or what

is to blame

for employee

disillusionment?

For silent withdrawal

chronic disengagement

loss of faith

Not the corporate –

Sightless

Voiceless

Emotionless

and deaf

Legal persons

are merely

the dumb vehicles

of men

Driven by greed

Selfishness

Authoritarianism

Megalomaniacs

with a private agendas

Rewarding loyalty

and hard work

With burnout

perverted

growth opportunities

and low pay

The corporate

an unknowing recipient

of all blame

Is powerless

against the power struggles

fought in its name

A mindless

Soulless

Vehicle of destruction

It’s demise

collateral damage

The above poem was inspired by the following quote from Grapes of Wrath, one of the saddest books I’ve ever read:

The above passage, the blaming of the bank for the decisions of men, quite enraged me.